The Influence of Oral Health Knowledge on Parental Practices among the Saudi Parents of Children Aged 2–6 Years in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The parent's oral health knowledge has a great influence on their children, so the aim of the study was to estimate the parental knowledge about oral health care and its influence in maintaining the diet and hygiene practices on their children and also to access how the demographic variables will influence them in taking their child to dental visits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The self-administered pretested questionnaire was distributed among Saudi parents whose children are in the age group of 2–6 years vising primary health care centers (PHCCs) in Riyadh city. The PHCCs were divided into five zones (Central, East, West, South, and North). 240–250 samples were randomly selected from each zone to reach the prescribed sample size of 1200. The survey will be composed of self-administered pretested questionnaires seeking for age, gender, educational level, and their financial status followed by 26 questions related to parent knowledge about oral health (14), dietary (5), and hygiene (7) practices what they implement on their child. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS software SPSS 25.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: Demographic information showed that the average age of the parents who participated in the study is 32.2 years. The mothers were 942 (75.7%) and fathers were 303 (24.3%) among the participants. The mean knowledge score among the mothers (34.85) is slightly greater than fathers (34.76). Similar results with dietary and hygiene practices were not statistically significant (>0.05). The parents having more than one child have better knowledge, of which the parents with more than three children have better scores, which is statistically significant. 69.3% of the parents prefer taking to a dentist only when they have a problem. Moreover, these findings found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Parents should get access to oral health knowledge to put in practice on their children so as to influence them in gaining better oral health.